Recent Work: Part 4... cupcakes

I had the pleasure of making baby shower invites for our friend Ashley, who happens to be our go-to gal for fabulous cupcakes.  So referencing pictures from some she made for Olive's birthday party, I illustrated them in the style you would find in children's books from the 60's; that is, line drawings in ink imperfectly filled with harvest gold, rosey pink, minty green, and the like.

Also, I decided this time to take advantage of the back of the card with a busier pattern, also drawn and colored in the same manner.



Recent Work: Part 3

I've completed a prototype for a new mobile.  I am pretty satisfied with it but still unsure if I want to offer it on the shop or not.  The main issue is the metal wire.  The mobile I currently offer is light enough that floral wire does the trick, but for this one I had to resort to piano wire... which is pretty difficult to bend into a smooth curve.  I finally made a jig out of a washer and random metal fastener I found in my toolbox to keep the loops consistent.

The main objective with this little experiment was to balance objects of equal size in a dynamic and seemingly precarious composition in space.  It would definitely be more successful with more pieces, consequently with more chances for long cantilevers.  Maybe sometime I'll get around to expanding on it.

Pure Joy

I am so incredibly thankful to God for my family.  It is such a wonderful thing to hear the words, "Mommy, I love you" come from a two year old. I try to soak up the conversations that I have with my little boy.  Just last night he was handing me a "present" and I asked him what it was.  He said, "It's a Cindewella dwess for you, and I'm the prince.  I will dance with you."  I cherish those moments.

It's an amazing thing to have a tiny little babe depend completely on you.  To be able to make her laugh and gurgle when I blow raspberries on her tummy.  To watch her grow and change so much in such a little bit of time.  To see her eyes light up and a big smile come across her face when she sees her daddy and her big brother.

Ah, motherhood. Tis a pure joy.

When I got out of bed this morning and came into the kitchen, I found a jar with beautiful flowers and a card next to it. It was the sweetest and most special card I have ever received.  I didn't realize it right away, but when I went into to kiss Nick on the cheek to say thank you, he asked if I looked on the back of the card.  I turned over the card and it said "hennstudio."  My sweet sweet husband stayed up last night and handmade me this card.  When I read those words now, I can hear his voice reading them to me.  It means so much for a wife to have the approval of her loving husband.  Thank you, my love, for everything.

Fresh

The new shop is up!… well, it has been for about a week or so now. We started it because we needed something a little more flexible than “babydarling” for any non-baby items we may want to make. So far “HENNstudio” only offers two basic items: fabric bookmarks and pen pouches. You may be wondering what exactly a pen pouch is. It is something I developed about a year ago. Being an architecture student I am very particular about my drawing/sketching/writing utensils and these would fall out of my pocket and be lost, all the time. This pouch keeps my precious drawing utensils in order and together as one manageable unit, like a wallet… and like my wallet I never leave home without it! There are other things we’ve talked about making but we’ll see if we ever get around to it. And the shop is not doing too bad. We’ve had 5 sales – all pen pouches – and all possitive feedback. One person even wrote: “WOW….I couldn’t get my pens in this sweet pen pouch fast enough. You did a beautiful job making it. Great communication and fast delivery. I may have to have another one…it’s so darn cool. Many thanks!”… that was pretty exciting. Here’s a screenshot of my SOLD page.

We’re also in the process of adding some fresh items to babydarling. Just today we had a photo-shoot for a couple new crib sets.  We’ve decided that bumpers might be a little too intense for us to keep making (especially with the new baby on the way), so hopefully these new bumper-less sets will be well received.  Also, authorities on infant-safety now say that bumpers significantly increase the risk of SIDS, so these sets are a great option for those who feel uneasy about crib bumpers.

Anyways, the photo shoot went pretty well.  We rearranged our living room, assembled the crib, borrowed Noah’s mobile and mattress, and turned our little living room into a photography set.  We have more to do tomorrow, but here are the two sets we were able to add to the shop today.

This has been a nice break from schoolwork, but we have so much more to do before baby Olive gets here, including my portfolio and thesis book (that I should be working on right now).  A new baby is sure to slow things down…